Introducing Access Dramaturgy

In the program for Dark Disabled Stories, a note from access dramaturg Alison Kopit oriented audiences and critics to an approach to access that “imagines ourselves into the future,” creating a corner of the theatre world where access is open and people experience rarely-represented perspectives on stage. She explained how “access is not an add-on to the show—it is the show,” as well as the way that the whole team worked together across language, through access conflicts, and with the institution to create access that is “integrated and smooth, but also transparent and present and loud.” Access dramaturgy presents an alternative to approaching access from a place of compliance and logistics (as exemplified by the dreaded accessibility checklist) and instead orients us toward a horizon where access and disability are central to meaning-making. 

We propose “access dramaturgy”: an alternative to logistics-based access coordination, wherein access itself is a source of creative material in ongoing conversation with the art. Often, it is baked into the art itself. In this access-forward and disability-centered practice, access is integrated into the creative landscape of the show, demonstrating ways that access can elevate art. We—Maggie Bridger, Alison Kopit, and Ann Marie Dorr—focus on two performances: Ryan J. Haddad’s Dark Disabled Stories and Maggie Bridger’s Radiate. For each of these productions, Alison Kopit served in a role we now call access dramaturg. Ann Marie Dorr served as line producer for Dark Disabled Stories. By naming, documenting, and operationalizing our processes with these two productions, we hope to give artists a guide to engaging with access and access workers. We push against mediocre, sparse, and non-obtrusive manifestations of access; and from this resistance, we move toward a more creative intervention that prioritizes access and disabled people and resists the performance norms that stifle them.

Integrated access has shown up in the work of disabled artists for many years. We aim to honor innovators in integrated access who came before us and contextualize our own work within that legacy. Creators like Amelia Cavallo and Louise Fryer have done this work in their book Integrated Access in Live Performance (2022), and companies that practice creative access include Quiplash, Amelia Cavallo and Al Lander-Cavallo's United Kingdom-based Community Interest Company; Battersea Arts Collective in the United Kingdom; and Phamaly Theatre company in Denver, Colorado. In the dance realm, Kayla Hamilton and Elisabeth Motley’s Crip Movement Lab, Kevin Gotkin’s work on access ecology in nightlife, and Kinetic Light’s attunement to access-based process have informed this work, alongside others.

Access dramaturgy models and brings into being care-centered ways of creating and performing, making access bolder and more dynamic for audiences and all involved with a production.

What Is Access Dramaturgy?

Access dramaturgy is a practice of integrating access creatively and collaboratively in performance from the earliest moments of the creative process. Like a traditional dramaturg, an access dramaturg works collaboratively with all involved in performance, but focuses on incorporating access into the performance, building relationships, and conducting research to supplement their own expertise, knowledge, and experiences. Access dramaturgs work with directors, designers, performers, playwrights, and technicians to create aesthetic access that contributes to the piece overall.

This is not work that sits quietly alongside performance or politely inserts itself at the end of the creative process but is instead integral to the way a performance makes sense of itself. An access dramaturg may also take up the invisibilized labor of self-advocacy that a disabled artist often has to do in order to work within ableist artmaking and production structures, freeing artists up to simply make work. Access dramaturgy models and brings into being care-centered ways of creating and performing, making access bolder and more dynamic for audiences and all involved with a production. With integrated and open access—access that all audience members experience, disabled or not—access dramaturgy introduces everyone to access and shows how access can be a key player in performance-making.

While an access dramaturg is a type of access worker, they also account for the ways that different types of access spill into and inform one another. We use the term “access worker” to refer to a range of people involved in meeting the needs of artists and audiences, including service providers like captioners, audio describers, American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, access consultants, and care workers. We draw a distinction between these workers and the work of the access dramaturg not to diminish their work, but to attend to the ways that an access dramaturg can advocate for and support other access workers’ roles in the artistic process.

Key Functions of Access Dramaturgy as Explored in Radiate and Dark Disabled Stories

Relationship

Relationship is at the heart of access work. An access dramaturg provides inroads to deeper understanding between artists, access workers, audience members, and institutions. An access dramaturg attends to and welcomes who is in—or might be in—the space and sets them up to accomplish whatever they have arrived in the space to do, whether that’s create, rehearse, or observe. They communicate between different access workers to ensure clarity of artistic goals and facilitate access for artists and audiences.

The version of Radiate we discuss here is an hourlong live performance presented at Steppenwolf Theatre Company as part of their LookOut Series in February 2024. This was supported largely by a 2023 Production Residency awarded to Maggie by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum in partnership with Links Hall. At the heart of Radiate is a complex relationship between access and art. We needed audio description, artistic sign language, and captions in order to begin work on the piece as a whole, so we reimagined the traditional workflow of movement determining audio description, sign language, and captioning. Instead, each collaborator was in conversation with others as the audio description, sound design, projection, movement, and artistic sign language informed one another.

This meant that the artistic outcome changed as each component came together and as we learned from one another’s access needs. For instance, in writing captions, Alison and Maggie included descriptions of sounds, like the creaking of chairs and floorboards. As we recorded these with Deaf artist and performer Joán Joel, the use of these became suspect, with Joán Joel observing the difficulty of translating sound into ASL—something with which ASL is not usually overly concerned. Rather than focusing on the sound itself, then, the artistic sign language in these moments became a commentary on the repetition that made up large portions of the movement. This moment of Joán Joel experiencing confusion around the utility of one access tool became an opportunity to deepen his role.

The March 2023 production of Ryan J. Haddad’s Dark Disabled Stories was produced by the Bushwick Starr, presented by the Public Theater, and directed by Jordan Fein. It is an autobiographical play written in vignettes in which Ryan documents moments of his queer and disabled life. The performance features Dickie Hearts, who performs Ryan’s part simultaneously in ASL, and Alejandra Ospina, who audio describes the performance. Andrew Morill served as the director of American Sign Language (DASL), doing dramaturgical work alongside Alison. Dickie and Alejandra had their own monologues as well, and throughout the performance stylized caption projections graced the backdrop.

In Dark Disabled Stories, Alison worked with each designer to think about how the ethos of the show could reflect in their work. For example, Alison introduced lighting designer Oona Curley to relaxed performance norms around lighting, and they worked together to make sure that the dim lighting of the house (instead of full blackout) did not disrupt the stage lighting. Andrew and Alison collaborated with projection designer Kameron Neal on the layout of the captions to make sure they read as effectively as possible. As sound designer Kathy Ravuna created musical transitions between stories, Alison wrote sound description to project as captions, exchanging information with Andrew about what descriptive words were useful to a Deaf audience. Each of these pieces were iterative, collaborative, and reliant upon Alison’s relationships with each of these artists to make access effective.

Part of keeping disabled people safe in performance is working toward complex, nuanced, human representations of disability experience.

Framing Access

Structuring performance around access can include the use of framing techniques to support artists and audiences in understanding the world of the piece, how access technology functions in the space, and the behavioral norms of the world they are entering. This work is anticipatory, aiming to forecast the needs of all types of audience members. It should extend from the audience’s earliest possible encounters with the work to the moment they leave the theatre.

In much of Maggie’s work, framing techniques are not just as important as the content of the work, they are the content. All communication is crafted to set audience expectations for the type of space they will enter and to frame that space as equally important as anything that will happen on stage. Once audiences were in the space, Radiate opened with a pre-recorded monologue from Maggie. This monologue told audiences where captions and ASL projections would be. It also set up some of the primary conceit of the work and provided a brief overview of the piece. Alison and Maggie worked closely with blind sound artist Andy Slater to ensure this made sense and felt artistically exciting. It also allowed Maggie a moment to “rehearse” the work before performing it—an especially useful tool for a dancer with chronic pain who may have limited energy to rehearse ahead of performances.

In Dark Disabled Stories, Alison worked across departments to give the audience and critics more context and language for discussing the show. She put together a press packet with the Public Theater’s public relations manager, Laura Mullaney, that addressed appropriate language to use when describing the actors and contextualized the approach to access and the politicized way that Ryan addressed disability. The press packet also pointed to the program note called “On Access: A Love Note,” (cited in the introduction to this essay), and it supported critics in writing reviews that addressed access and disability meaningfully instead of shying away from discussing disability or using terms that are not accepted by the community.

It was not just about representing an experience (though this is essential); it was about a commitment to accessible modes of making.

Representation

An access dramaturg can bring to light representational issues around disability in the work. Part of keeping disabled people safe in performance is working toward complex, nuanced, human representations of disability experience.

An access dramaturg can help to clarify the available options and balance representation and access. In Radiate, Maggie carried around a small wall that held a functioning electrical outlet where she plugged in her heating pad. The wall was intentionally heavy so that it would stay put, even as Maggie repeatedly walked quickly away from it, unplugging the heating pad. After one run, Alison noted to Maggie, “I want carrying the wall to be easier for you.” However, the most accessible choice is not always the best dramaturgical choice. Maggie wanted to feel that effort and to make it obvious that remaining connected to the heating pad was not simple, easy, or even accessible. The more tiring, less accessible choice was what the work needed. Alison began working with Ryan on the script of Dark Disabled Stories in a November workshop before rehearsals. They discussed the political implications of each story and worked through ways to have Ryan’s perspective shine through as singular (though often relatable) without speaking for the rest of the disability community. They discussed moments when ableism and ageism collide, parsed the ways various stories might land for different members of the community, honed word choice, and worked through how to keep the play aligned with disability cultural values.

Centering Values and Disrupting Hierarchy

An access dramaturg supports choices that keep the show rigorously aligned between values and actions. This often means acting as a disruptor in the ableist, deeply hierarchical structures of dance and theatre.

There is not a lot of “dance” in Radiate. Maggie spent long periods of time sitting in a cozy chair. When she did “dance,” it was often obscured. This is not necessarily out of the ordinary for contemporary/post-modern dance, but it did at times feel particularly vulnerable because of the autobiographical elements of Radiate that are deeply intertwined with Maggie’s experiences of pain and chronic illness. While in residence, Maggie took to jokingly identifying the moment when Radiate becomes a “dance.” Alison was able to reframe Maggie’s anxieties by focusing on the purpose of the stillness and slowness of the work. It was not just about representing an experience (though this is essential); it was about a commitment to accessible modes of making. Radiate bends expectations for what might happen in a dance because it is a practice in exploring time, pain, and access through movement.

In Dark Disabled Stories we made the artistic and disability-centered choice to ask the audience to wear masks. We invited the audience to be in community with the people on stage and in the audience with this choice and did so by tying their action (masking) to the values of the show. There was a mask on each seat and a note from the access dramaturg that framed the choice: Dark Disabled Stories is a show grounded in disability cultural values. In disability culture, the community practices collective care to protect each other, and one easy way to do this in the pandemic era is by wearing a face mask. While a mask is not required at this performance, we ask that you please wear one today to help protect those around you, as well as the actors on stage.” This was extremely effective, and almost the entire audience was masked at each performance. This was a collaborative decision that came from the artists involved, as opposed to institutional practice. Ann Marie’s advocacy was key to this process, as they supported the conversation with the institution about the values surrounding this choice.

Access Dramaturgy is Transformative

At its best, access dramaturgy has the power and potential to transform not just a single performance, but to bring about new ways of creating, producing, and witnessing performance. By beginning with the needs of disabled artists and audiences, we introduce performance spaces to new ways of collaborating and building relationships. We allow people to show up as their full selves.

Access takes time and labor, especially when it is integrated into the foundation of the work. It brings a wider range of people into the room, and with them, likely more access needs. We sometimes have to be slower in the name of access. Sometimes we need to adjust a budget or change the rehearsal schedule and norms. This is a strategy that, if we loosen our grip on traditional (and often ableist) performance norms and hierarchies, will enrich performance, create a framing device for the show’s politic, and demonstrate a way of creating work in alignment with our values.

Access dramaturgy insists that disabled people can be everywhere—in audiences, represented in the stories we tell, performing on stage, and in the creative process. It instigates change and disruption in people, structures, and artistry. It offers an invitation to all performance makers, producers, and audiences to seriously consider the artistic potential of access.